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Nia Vardalos

You're invited to a 'Big Fat Greek' reunion for 'Wedding 2'

Andrea Mandell
USA TODAY
Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) still has lots of advice for Toula (Nia Vardalos) in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.'

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Nia Vardalos is serving up handy Greek phrases, from I want to eat to It was very good.

But what to say when you want your family to go home?

“There’s no expression in Greek for that?” deadpans Vardalos (who has 27 first cousins).

It's a good thing the entire Portokalos family was invited back to My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (in theaters March 25), written by and starring Vardolos.

Thirteen years in the making, the sequel rejoins Vardalos’ Toula and Ian (John Corbett) as they cope with a teenage daughter threatening to leave her suffocating family to attend college thousands of miles away.

Nia Vardalos' long walk to the altar for 'Greek Wedding 2'

The story doesn’t fall far from the tree. “I’m so not ready for my daughter ever to go away,” says Vardalos, whose daughter, Ilaria, is 10. “Just her getting on the bus to school makes me weep.”

The feel-good-every-family vibe is back for the sequel, too. With Greek flourishes, of course.

“The first time I met her family, before we shot My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I came to her house and she had her entire family in the garage and they were cooking a lamb over the spit,” says Lainie Kazan, who plays Toula’s mother. “I swear to God that was what was happening.”

In Greek 2, the gang's all here, including Toula’s parents Gus and Maria (Michael Constantine and Kazan), cousin Nikki (Gia Carides) and the hilarious, over-sharing Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin).

Rita Wilson, who produced both films with husband Tom Hanks, and pops up in a role  as John Stamos' wife in Greek 2, notes that Vardalos “could have come up with a whole new bunch of characters, or it could have been called My Big Fat Greek Divorce. But the fact that she stayed so authentic to what a family is like, and the fact that we got all of these characters in this family together again so many years later, that feels really good.”

On set, despite the fact that “everybody’s hair is a little bit grayer,” says Joey Fatone, who reprises his role as Toula’s pot-stirring cousin Angelo, “it still felt like we’ve never left.”

So while belly laughs come when young Portokalos descendants mimic their grandfather's enthusiasm for Windex and vocabulary lessons, there are real signs of life's wear and tear, too.

For example, in Greek 2 when Toula (still the chief family fixer) and Ian (still good-natured if oft-frustrated by his in-laws) take talk of their daughter Paris off the table at dinner, they are left with an lot of uncomfortable silences.

“I just went deeper, and I wanted to show what happens in a marriage," Vardalos says. "Every marriage goes through — I wouldn’t say it’s a roller coaster — it’s a slow-motion roller coaster, where you might suddenly look up and realize you’ve been going down and you didn’t even know.”

Toula's not the only one with new issues. Aside from overbearing relatives and flowing ouzo, audiences will see Toula’s mother take umbrage with her station in the sequel.

“I knew she had written a sequel and I decided I wanted to read it,” says Kazan, who was allowed to read the script only in a secure production office. “So they lock me into this room,” she laughs, “and I’m reading the script and I realize — this story is about me!”

It’s an example of Vardalos distributing major roles to men and women in the Portokalos family.

“I’m pro-women without being anti-man,” Vardalos says. “The truth is, I love men and I love to write for men, and I love working with men and I love working with women. And we are underserved. So I set out to make very healthy roles for the women in this script.”

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